Shanghai Day 2:
After grabbing breakfast at a nearby Singaporean restaurant, Yao and I headed to Cheng Huang Miao (City God Temple). The temple and nearby Yu Garden were beautiful with their traditional architecture, but it was a bit too touristy. There were thousands of people walking around the shops and restaurants.
Cheng Huang Miao
Yao and I decided to pass on the tourist restaurants in favor of local street food. I hadn’t gotten too harassed on the trip so far, but as we walked along the food stands I was constantly being jabbed at with skewers of grilled squid and meat. We ordered some sheng jian bao (fried soup dumplings) and shanghai style noodles, but both were pretty disappointing. The dumplings were cold with no soup inside them and the noodles didn’t have any flavor. One of the more interesting things Yao bought was stinky tofu. There’s no other word to describe the smell other than pungent.
Local alley with street food
We continued to walk around and buy some more souvenirs. One lady asked how much I paid Yao to translate for me. Another kept calling him little boy. I found it pretty funny, but I guess it should be expected when a Chinese guy is speaking to vendors in Mandarin and to his white friend in English.
One thing you quickly notice in Shanghai is the number of jobs that would seem superfluous in the US. For example, they have pedestrian enforcers who try make sure you stand on the curb while the crossing light is red. In the subways, they have security who try to block people from entering until they put their bag through an xray machine. I keep saying “try” because none of these positions have any authority. On the way back, I saw two guys walk right through a security man’s arm who was trying to block them. Another woman told her husband not to bother putting his bag on the belt because it didn’t matter.
Later that night we met up for dinner with some of Yao’s teammates from Clash of Clans to discuss some important things like if they should kick out some high school members and how. Despite it topic being a bit childish, it was fun to meet some more people and a big reason why traveling with Yao has been so much fun. Generally, I’m pretty shy and have trouble talking with people I don’t know, but having a common friend makes it a lot easier. In the end the inducted me into their clan, Smog Heaven.
tim (Tim), IamHORRIBLE (Yao), and The Undertaker (Yuming) disussing important clan stuff
Shanghai Day 3:
Yao and I started the day getting more soup dumplings. I think my count for the trip was 40, but I wish it were higher.
Boiled XLBs
Afterwards, we made a quick stop at a local temple, Jing An Shi, and walked around a nearby park. We saw one guy writing in calligraphy on the sidewalk with what looked like a huge paint brush attached to a bottle of water. We also came across some elderly men playing card games and gambling. Despite cultural and geographic differences, it was exactly like seeing people in Miami playing dominos or in New York playing chess.
The thing I was most excited to do that day and since we landed in Shanghai was to visit the marriage market. Traditionally in China, parents would set up their children with their future spouse. One way they did this was by posting spec sheets about their child like age, weight, height, income, etc at a local park. Generally, they would post the on an open umbrella that they set on the ground. They would also include what their requirements were for a spouse. For men, you better own a house and car or you have no chance. The children generally don’t approve of their parents doing this and rarely come to the market.
Dating spec sheets
Despite living in the 21st century and the invention of online dating, these marriage markets still exist and I had to visit one. We headed to People’s Square and started walking around the park trying to find the market. I had no clue what I was looking for, but all if a sudden I started to see groups of elderly people crowded around umbrellas with postings on them. I knew we had found it but did not expect the number listings and people. There had to be thousands of people walking around trying to find their child a spouse. Guys carried around black books writing down phone numbers and specs. Mothers and fathers sat idly by their umbrella waiting for someone to come by. However, the most interesting thing is that 99% of the listings don’t have any pictures.
Multiply this scene by 100 to get an idea of how many people were there
The last thing I had to try before leaving China was hotpot. Luckily, we decided to get half normal broth and half spicy broth because the spicy one literally numbed my lips. I got a little worried during the meal when I realized I had been drinking tap water and my fears amplified when we saw a dog run through the restaurant.
On our way to grab drinks we say a woman making street noodles. At this point I figure I’m going to get sick for sure and might as well try them. Not to mention, Shanghai had to redeem itself for bad ones from the prior day. I’m not sure what she did differently, but I loved them. They had way more flavor and complexity than the ones from before.
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